Kentucky Derby Tablescape

Kentucky Derby Tablescape. Y’all this Saturday isn’t one for the faint of heart. It’s Derby Day, and Cinco de Mayo. So, parties are bound to happen, even on a small scale.

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I truly enjoy watching the Derby, and even though I won’t don a fancy hat, and cute dress, or even host a true Kentucky Derby Party, I do still like to have my table dressed and ready for the day! {And then, tacos for dinner..this year} Truthfully, though, I would love to host annual Kentucky Derby Parties!

I am such a sucker for gingham, so I added a simple piece of black gingham fabric on the table as a runner, and built up the simple table decor around it. Since we will have a few people over to watch the race with us, I grabbed a few small bottles of Maker’s Mark for our guests and placed them on a silver serving tray with a painted chipboard horse shoe. Since it’s not a party without cake, I had a simple white cake in the center of the table. I topped it with a chipboard horse cake topper, and I added small rosette flowers and leaves around the base of the cake. It was simple, but beautiful. Next to the cake, I used a thrifted trophy cup and filled it with gorgeous roses.

To make the cake topper and horse shoes, you will need:

Open Design Space and choose a horse silhouette, and a horse shoe image that you like. Size them to fit your cake, and plates.

Tape the Cricut Chipboard to the mat around all 4 sides. Move the star wheels to the side closest to the power button, and load the chipboard into the Maker.

Choose 2 MM Chipboard from the dropdown menu, and cut it. It will take a while, it has to cut the image approximately twenty times to cut all the way through the chipboard and make a clean cut. During this time, you cannot allow your computer to go into sleep mode, or the Maker will stop cutting. Be sure to follow all the prompts and directions for cutting with the Knife Blade. If your project isn’t cut all the way through, don’t worry, just press the C again and it will cut the image one more time, just don’t unload the mat.

After your chipboard is cut and painted, cut mini rosette flowers and leaves from cardstock and glue them on to the horse cake topper to resemble the rose garland the winning horse is presented with. Finally, glue toothpicks onto the backside of the cake topper.

The place settings were easy, I stacked plates, added silverware, and filled classic glasses with ice water. But, on the stacked plates, I layered my new favorite napkins, chipboard horse shoes, and a single red rose.

To make serving Mint Juleps easier I put everything on a serving tray. I found this beautiful round serving tray at Target after Easter on clearance, and I used my Cricut to monogram it. I LOVE the end result. I added sweet glass julep cups, a bottle of bourbon, fresh mint, and a sweet floral hand towel to wipe up any messes. Serving trays are perfect for parties of all sizes, they help keep the mess to a minimum, and allow guests to serve themselves…and, as a hostess, I always want my guests to feel comfortable enough to serve themselves.